Let's get this straight-I'm a Hilton Honors member so I've stayed at Hilton properties all over the U.S. as well as in Europe, the UK, and Scandinavia. In fact, nowadays when I plan a vacation, one of my first priorities is to search the immediate area to see what Hilton properties are nearby-not because I'm a HH member but because by and large, the Hilton properties tend to be the ones with a great reputation for cleanliness, safety, friendly and competent staff members, and lots of free extras. It has never steered me wrong-until now.
We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Ozark Alabama over the 4th of July weekend while there to see family. We could not have had a worse experience.
Let's start with the good (and believe me, I have to struggle to find it). Chris, the gentleman at the front desk for most of our stay was very helpful in getting us the basic things we needed (towels, toilet paper) as well as being sympathetic to our plight. He also gave us the manager's business card when we told him we were going to be leaving this review
And that about does it for the good. Now the bad-I noticed when I booked the room on line that there was a distinction between smoking and non-smoking rooms. I guess Alabama hasn't gotten the news yet that smoking is bad for you and allowing smoking on your property is a detriment to customers who don't smoke. Nonetheless, though, it was a Hilton property and they did have non-smoking rooms, so I took a chance.
The first thing that hit us when we walked into the room was that the whole room smelled like an ashtray and it was disgusting. We should have asked for another room but we forged on. Also, the sign on the hotel room door clearly stated that it was a non-smoking room. So if you can't stop some idiot from smoking in a non-smoking room, what would make me think any other room would be different? We put up with it.
The second thing we noticed was a sign on the bathroom mirror that said-and I'm not kidding here- "for your convenience and privacy we will not clean your room daily unless you request it." Are you kidding me??? Who put that stupid rule in place? That to me was something no doubt left over from the pandemic and they decided to keep that little jewel in place. So we did ask....and asked....and asked....and asked. In fact, we asked 4 times over 4 days to have our room cleaned, went down to the desk and actually spoke to someone to have our room cleaned 4 times and that room looked just as bad the day we left as it did after the first night. We never got it cleaned and that's why Chris was sympathetic. He said that they were having trouble with the housekeeping staff and with them keeping up. Mind you, that same housekeeping staff was in our hallway cleaning rooms every single morning we were there-just not ours. We would have asked one of them, but we assumed they had gotten the direction we left previously-our mistake, apparently.
The third thing was the food. To say it was awful was an understatement. It was either powdered eggs or egg beaters that someone couldn't cook properly, but it matched the room-disgusting. There was also the turkey (?!) sausage that was terrible. I settled for cereal because I know you have to really stretch to screw that up. However, on the last morning there was no milk, so that killed that plan. And that brings me to another point-one single person trying to keep up with a breakfast "bar" is ridiculous. They ran out of everything (although why I can't imagine) and she had to work hard to refill and replace things. It was bad food, but I guess people thought it was better than nothing. She clearly had her hands full.
What was amazing was that on the last day (which was after the holiday) they had omelets and pork sausage patties which leads me to question why they couldn't serve that previously? Saving that stuff until after the holiday rush???? No, I think once the holiday crowd was gone, the hotel was back to full staffing levels because there were clearly better things on the bar (although no milk) and someone actually vacuuming which was not something we had heard on any of the previous days.
I understand its a holiday weekend and there are labor shortages, but you should at least get someone to clean rooms in between days when asked. We saw plenty of housekeeping staff, so there's no shortage there. And why should we have to ask to have the room cleaned? When did that become an option? And if you can't enforce non-smoking in your non-smoking rooms then cut out smoking altogether. You are alienating a large population of people.
I don't like leaving negative reviews like this, but the management of this hotel needs to be aware and they need to do something about it. The sad part about all of this is I can no longer just trust the fact that it's a Hilton property-now I have to do all of the research and if it means staying in something other than a Hilton, then it's worth it to me. read more